Ok, so I have just about finished my first aquaponic system and I wanted to share some of the processes and designs with this forum, you guys helped with a lot of ideas. To give you an overview of my system and the conditions it will be in I will start and say that the majority of my system design was to help avoid overheating of the water. I live in a hot desert climate where 120 degree weather is not uncommon in the summer. I wanted to start my first system small but as I was thinking I decided I would need a fairly decent volume of water in order to help stabilize the water temperature. I ran across the IBC's of aquaponics youtube video by backyardaquaponics.com and thought that setup looked easy and cheap. My basic design follows their setup for an IBC system but I have three 275 gallon IBC's all plumbed together with 4 inch pipe with one 2000 gallon per hour pump. I decided to do a constant flood system and just go for max aeration to keep the grow bed from heating up during the summer and plants oxygenated. But enough with the layout, let me show you some pictures. (first time trying to post pics so lets hope this works.)


This is the hole I dug for the system, it is about one and a half feet deep. I lined the bottom of the hole with leftover roofing shingles turned upside down to add extra protection from rocks to the bottom of the IBC's. The ground is really rocky around here. The system is located on the southeast side of my house so it will be shaded in the afternoon.


Here are some of the rocks I pulled out during my digging. The smaller hand sized and below rocks went into a hole in my yard from a dug up tree.


There are the IBCs put into the hole and plumbed together with 4 inch pipe. I used Uniseals as suggested on this forum, and I am very happy I did. They are great. I did have to put some aquarium silicone around the seals to stop leaks, but I think that is because I had some rough holes cut from my hole saw.


There is the water flowing through the pipes during filling time


I built a frame around the top of the fish tanks with 3/4 inch plywood and 2" roofing insulation. I also put sun screen on top of the fish tanks to help protect from the sun. Like I said, keeping a cool water temp is a top priority.


Oh, and here are my kids helping out. The boys are relaxing in the sun. 80 degree weather in February is pretty nice!


Got the growbeds filled with viastone clay rocks after an afternoon of cleaning them in a mesh bag outside of the system. I also framed the grow beds with 1/2 inch plywood to help protect the IBCs from the sun since they are not UV stable.


Here is the plumbing coming up from my 2000 gph pump. I have a 1-1/4 inch pipe going off as an aeration line to the middle tank. 2 inch pipe runs to the top to the growbeds and then goes to 1-1/2 inch pipe with 1/4 inch holes drilled in the bottom for distribution of water to the gb.


Water flowing down my 2 inch drainpipe to the fish tank.


Here is an overall of my system, I had a leak in the lid of the first growbed which is being repaired as we speak. But I was able to just cap off the T to keep the system running with the other two growbeds. I planted a tomato plant in each growbed and also a row of radishes in each one. I have seedlings planted and just about ready to put in. I am pleased with how the system looks with the plywood frame.

I have started cycling the system with ammonia from Ace hardware. I will try to get the system cycled that way before I get my fish. I have a couple questions about some of my start up but I will ask that in another thread. Thanks for the help I got from this forum. Also I am thankful my wonderful wife helped with the building of this. We had a fun time building it together. I am also thankful God took care of a lot of the details. I am a poor planner and many of my mistakes ended up working out nicely in the end. Now we get to sit back and enjoy running the system. My wife loves opening our bedroom window and listening to the water flow at night. She says it is like living by a waterfall. Pretty nice to have here in the desert.